Thursday, 29 November 2012

and that was how to line a cake tin! We must have had a very good cookery teacher in my school days as so much of the stuff I remember dates back to school cookery lessons. My mother wasn't a 'natural' cook and therefore found it hard to pass on any skills; some do remainhowever, mainly how to scrape out the mixing bowl when the cake was in the oven! This, of course, isn't allowed these days because of the raw egg content!

My skills in lining a cake tin returned to me today as I decided for the first time in many years to make a Christmas cake. The last few Christmas's have been with family who don't like Christmas cake so there was no real incentive to bake and previously R's mother had always made the cakes.

There were no instructions in Delia's recipe on how to line the tin, although I'm sure her skills with this are even greater than mine, but from the back of my mind I dragged the ancient instructions on how to do this. Line the base first - cut the paper with an overhang which could be turned up, then measure round the tin to get the length which then had to have a 'turn up' which had to be cut at intervals to make it bend!

Grease absolutely everything with butter and fit the paper. Hey presto, it worked.

The base corners shouldn't be inspected too closely but, what the hell, no-one's going to stop a galloping horse to look at them (as my grandmother used to say).Very pleased with my efforts and went on to read the Method of the recipe, realising that I needed at least four large mixing bowls. As I only have two and one of those was full of stew (another story) I had a stop for a coffee and a think. It was possibly the caffeine rush but I suddenly remembered that somewhere in the depths of a cupboard I had my late mother-in-law's Kenwood Mixer! She had bought this in the late 1950's when they were new to the market (my mother had one as well) and had the same impact as today's technology! Baking was revolutionised! No longer did you have to stand with a wooden spoon beating sugar and butter until it was white or tediously whisking eggs with a hand beater - this mixer was all electric,had so many attachments it was a phenomenon, and, in my view, has never been bettered. With a little forward planning the problem was over!

So I end with thanks to Mrs Stallibrass (my cookery teacher) and Gwen (my lovely m-i-l) for giving me the knowledge and technology to bake a Christmas cake.

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Another wonderful weekend
but this time something rather different for me.A friend invited me to sail with her (and
another crew member) up to Hickling Broad and then on to Horsey Mere in her
classic Broads river cruiser, meeting up for lunch with about half a dozen
other boats from the same sailing club.

Having only sailed on river
cruiser on a couple of occasions I was a little uncertain but decided that it
was too good an offer to pass on so packed my bag with life jacket, sailing
gloves, wine and cake and headed for Thurne.

We duly met up and I was
quickly bundled on to another boat to cross from one side of the river to the
moorings on the other side, handed the tiller and told to guide the boat down
the dyke.Gulp!!Luckily there were no sails up at this stage
and once I’d remembered that the tiller should be turned the opposite way to
which you wanted to travel, I was ok.I
did hand it back when we got to the busy main river and the mooring.

We seemed to have a huge
amount of gear for three of us, although the other ladies were staying
overnight on the boat, so this was understandable. This was all stowed away in
the cabin, the boat was uncovered, the outboard engine was lifted on to its
bracket, the sails were set up ready, the boat was turned round and we were all
set to head upriver to tackle Potter Heigham bridge.

The original plan was to
sail up the river to this bridge and moor up to lower the mast but as we had
been a little late setting off it was decided we would lower the mast first and
motor to the other side of the two road bridges.

As we approached the bridge
it became obvious that there was a sailing race starting and we had to
carefully negotiate through the start, our skipper greeting most of the other
sailors as we weaved our way through.

She wasn’t sure of our air
draft so I stood up to judge the height and we cleared the bridge with about 12
inches to spare.We discovered later
that some boats had centimetres clearance!

Having moored up to raise
the mast we set the sails and off we went up the river, luckily no tacking
involved at this stage so we could look at the riverside properties and boats
as we progressed in the glorious sunshine.

After a while, we turned
left into Candle Dyke and after a fairly short sail we arrived at Hickling
Broad, which is a National Nature Reserve.There was a regatta of small boats going on and we spied our raft up on
the other side of the Broad.As we
approached, under sail, there were shouts to me of “where’s your camera Sue”
and I just managed to snatch one shot as we tacked and turned to come neatly
alongside the end of the raft up.

Greetings were shouted along
the boats, lunch was produced, wine was opened with a pop from the fizzy stuff
I had brought and everything was perfect. It was so peaceful and we watched the dinghy
racing on the Broad - what a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

As time went by, one or two
of the boats started peeling off to sail on up Meadow Dyke to Horsey Mere and
the dyke where we would be mooring before heading to the Nelson Head pub for an
evening meal.We were almost the last
boat to leave and were overtaken by another faster boat as we made our way up
the beautiful winding dyke on to Horsey Mere.A
quick sail across this lovely stretch of water and we were into our mooring.

By the time everything was
tidied up and bunks were prepared for the two staying overnight, it was time to
head to the pub.There were 32 of us and
we took over the restaurant for the evening, amidst a lot of laughing and
joking.

R had joined me for the
evening and we then drove home for the night, rejoining the fleet early the
next morning.The thick fog which was
surrounding us as we drove cleared as we reached Horsey and the coast and another
day of lovely sunshine dawned.

It had been a cold night and
many of the brave people who had stayed on their boats were returning from hot
showers in the toilet block or tucking into hearty breakfasts.

R was to sail back downriver
on another boat, which he was delighted with as he had admired this particular
cruiser for years.He told me later that
he had been allowed to helm most of the way!Very impressed!

We set off on to Horsey Mere
and decided to have a bit of practice manoeuvring the boat.The other crew member (who had only been
sailing for 4 months but was a natural sailor) wanted to learn how to sail
backwards, so we spent some time trying out the theory, unfortunately
failing!There were a number of
suggestions made, some quite bizarre, but we gave up in the end and headed for
home.

Halfway there, the wind died
completely so the decision was made to use the engine and lower the mast whilst
travelling.I was again put in charge of
steering and only made one or two mistakes!!

We cleared Potter Heigham
bridge with about 10 inches to spare this time and again I steered whilst the
mast was raised.We rafted up for
lunch on Womack Water which wasn’t quite as peaceful as the previous day as
someone was strimming on the bank!Uh,
what was that all about?

Boats again started to move
off for the journeys back to their home moorings and we reluctantly set off,
passing the Hunter Yard boats ready for lifting out of the water for the
winter.

We moored up by Thurne Mill
to offload the bags and then the skipper and other crew member took her back to
her moorings.Goodbyes and thanks were
exchanged and we went on our way home.

What a fabulous weekend and
I had such a good time, in the best company and super weather.I am so lucky!

I can remember the days when you could telephone your bank and the phone was answered by someone who actually worked at the branch and knew the names of all the staff and could put you through to the person you wanted to speak to, or take a sensible message for them.

I recently had to cancel an appointment with someone at my bank and, naively perhaps, assumed that the telephone number on his business card was his direct telephone line. Wrong!

On ringing the number, I had to go through a tedious procedure of tapping in various branch, account and birth date numbers. The latter was easy but the former meant I had to search around in my file whilst the automated voice on the line seemed to become more impatient with me. I eventually got these stages out of the way, only to be asked for the third digit of my telephone banking pin! I don't do telephone banking!

After asking me three times, the automated voice suggested that I should hold on whilst I was connected to one of the bank's staff and the music started. After what seemed like 10 minutes of music a real person came on and was actually someone I could understand.

However, he didn't seem to be able to grasp the fact that I needed to get a message to a particular person to cancel an appointment. I tried to speak precisely, with nothing but the facts but he was making assumptions and I wasn't entirely confident that the message would get through.

Perhaps I should have just not turned up for the appointment as the quickest way of getting the message across! I suppose one compensation is that I don't appear to have been charged for the call.

Monday, 3 September 2012

I know I’ve written a couple of stories previously about
travelling from the northern rivers of the Norfolk Broads to the southern
rivers and some might find yet another account boring, but to us it is a
different adventure every time we make the journey.

Saturday lunchtime started with a run up to Horning to get
some diesel, from a small boatyard where it is quite tricky at times to
moor. However, on this occasion, there
was no obstacle course to negotiate, just some clever manoeuvring by the
skipper and 'kerching' – lots of notes handed over!

This was my first anxiety out of the way! The next one was going to be, as always,
whether we would have enough room under the pesky bridges at Great Yarmouth
(popularly known as Yarmite locally). We
had planned this journey to coincide with spring tides, which give low lows and
high highs but tide times are only predictions and it could all be different on
the day, as we have found to our cost in the past!

We had a pleasant journey down the Bure, cruising slowly with
the tide and under the bridge at Acle (plenty of room there), spotting the
Wherry Ardea moored at the Bridge Inn.

A number of boats passed us on the river, obviously in a
hurry to get to Yarmite but we stuck to our plan, although we did seem to be
getting ahead of ourselves when we reached Stokesby so decided to moor at
Stracey windmill for half an hour to lower the radar arch and make final
checks, as well as stocking up on biscuits for the weekend!

Shortly after setting off we were passed by a river cruiser
which is very familiar to us, having watched her sail in most of the regattas
for the last few years. Her mast was
down and her skipper was happily going down with the tide. We exchanged greetings as he passed.

I always have a sense of relief when I see the mud banks
appearing at the banks of the river, as this means the tide is definitely going
to be low enough for us but I was happy to see the height board which showed in
excess of 12ft headroom. No worries
then!

The tide was still flowing out very fast and there was a
hire boat fairly close behind us which we knew wouldn’t be able to stop if we
had to give way for any reason and, sod’s law, as we approached the first
bridge there was a river cruiser struggling through the bridge, closely
followed by a privately owned motor cruiser and another hire boat!

At this stage I signalled to the boat behind us to back off,
as we had to hold in the river to allow these boats through. Normally it would be up to the boats coming
against the tide to give way as they have more control but as the river at the
bridges is quite narrow, and the two bridges are close together it would have
been too much to expect them to give way.

A good bit of manoeuvring (for the second time that day) by
the skipper and it was our turn to negotiate the dreaded bridges. It was obvious that height wasn’t going to be
a problem and I didn’t need to keep a look-out but the tide was obviously
running late as it was still racing out, well after predicted low water – you
never can tell!

We were amazed, as we passed the famous yellow post, to see
a mud bank behind it, which we had never seen before, proving how low the tide
was that day.

As we started across Breydon Water the sun was coming
through the clouds and once again I got that feeling of well-being which I
always get when we come “down south”.
Breydon Water holds no fears for us (I used to sail there) and as we
pushed across fairly fast to make the most of the light, we passed the river
cruiser who had passed us earlier. We
offered him a tow but he said he was ok – although he did say in the pub later
that if I’d mentioned the large gin and tonic which would have been poured for him,
he would have accepted!

We had a beer and G&T respectively to celebrate the bad
part of the trip (the bridges) being behind us!

We were aiming for Cantley and The Reedcutter (ex Red House)
pub but started to get a little concerned as we passed the Berney Arms and
Reedham to see very busy moorings.

As we came up to Cantley it was obvious that there were a
lot of boats moored, mainly tall masted river cruisers but, in the failing
light, we saw one space where a couple of fishermen were sitting. As we came towards the mooring I went up to
the bow and shouted to the fishermen that we had to come in as we had no other
option. They shouted back that they were
packing up and would help us in, for which we were very grateful.

When we had secured mooring lines, the skipper thanked the
fishermen and in chatting they said they couldn’t believe that we were planning
to put a 33ft boat into a 30ft space!!
Perhaps it was the alcohol which made us brave!! I took some photos in the morning …..

A bit of supper and then a pleasant couple of hours were
spent in the pub where we met up with the chap from the river cruiser and his
family. An early night as we were quite
tired after a busy day.

Woke up to a sunrise over the sugar factory (known as “Cantley Castle”) and the sounds of activity on
some of the boats. When we emerged to
chat with the boat owners we discovered that there was going to be a race from
Cantley to Coldham Hall that day – the Cecil Howard Memorial Trophy race –
which we had never heard of before.

This is where I need to refer to a previous blog – “Going
south” where I gave an account of our ‘interaction’ with a river cruiser by the
name of Wandering Rose. After our
experiences last year, I jokingly told one of the crew that we would steer
clear of them this year!

Hahaha – couldn’t believe it when I saw the boat moored in
front of us – yes, it was Wandering Rose!
The owner/skipper (who wasn’t able to sail her last year and trustingly
allowed friends to use her) told us that he was short of crew for this race and
would we like to help out.

We thought about it whilst I got coffee and biscuits for him
and his two crew members who had arrived by then (we knew them both) and
decided to do it. We were promised a
lift back to our boat after the race as we had a berth booked at Brundall that night.

Quick grab of life jackets, water, money and cameras and we
were on board and out on the river! The
rig looked quite complicated to us novices but the skipper gave us some quick
training on what we had to do and then we were off – there were three or four
starts and we were in the last one so were at the back of the pack of about
twelve boats. Something to do with
handicaps but to us it all sounded as complicated as the rig!

It was obvious that I wasn’t going to be able to take any
photographs, as I had initially hoped, as we were kept busy tacking up the
river, initially against the tide but then when it turned the wind dropped and
it was a gentle sail up to Coldham Hall for a couple of hours – very
enjoyable.

We had a drink and substantial lunch at the pub and then it
was time for trophy presentation! We
were surprised to be awarded a third place and a very tasteful cup but then
even more surprised to be told that, after a ‘recount’, we had second place and
were awarded a very strange trophy!

Owner/skipper and trophy!

Shortly after we boarded a river cruiser to head back to
Cantley, under power this time, and enjoyed the trip sitting on the bow. The ancient skipper of this boat, with a
cackle of laughter, told me I had to be foredeck tottie which was a first for
me and made me laugh as I was probably older than him!!

Our lift back to Cantley

Then it was a leisurely trip up to Brundall to find our
berth which was to be home to our boat for four nights before we set off back
to Cantley to watch the Yare Navigation Race next weekend. We were greeted by the fine sight of a hot air balloon floating by.

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

I was given the opportunity last Friday to take a once in a lifetime trip aboard the motor torpedo boat MTB102, which was the first MTB of
the modern era and is now in a Trust.
More information can be found here http://www.mtb102.com/

The trip was supposed to have three people who would act as
crew and six passengers. I put my name
down as a passenger but said I was willing to act as crew if required. Not being sure what crewing entailed on this
large boat I was a little apprehensive!

During the week, we were advised that new propellers and
shafts were being fitted to the boat and by Thursday morning these had not
arrived, so until the last minute the trip was in jeopardy. However, they did arrive and the team worked
almost throughout the night to install the new parts.

As the MTB was on the sea side of the Broads on Lake Lothing,
Mutford Lock would have to be negotiated as would the swinging railing bridge,
so some organisation was required.

The original timing was that the MTB would go through the
lock at 10 am and we had to be there by 9.45 but this was then put back so we
duly arrived at the boatyard at the newly appointed time of 12 noon. The boat was on the slipway but it was fairly
obvious that she couldn’t be floated until the tide came up. Richard Basey, who runs the Trust and
skippers the boat, told us that high water was 3 pm but he would try and float
her before then. We anticipated the long
wait and settled down on the bank to talk and eat our lunch.

Crew and passengers

Around 2.15 Richard and his usual crew asked us to move down
to a nearby pontoon in anticipation of boarding and they went on board, started
the engines and tried to power the MTB off the trolley but she was stuck fast!

Engines started

No amount on rocking,
pulling and shoving would budge her so again we sat and watched the tide creep
in until eventually, with one roar of the engines, she was afloat! We all cheered and clapped!

And she's free!

Having twin engines, she can turn on a sixpence, which she
did, and came alongside the pontoon where we clambered on board, Richard
hoisted the flags, signalled the railway bridge and lock keeper and off we
went.

I hadn’t been through Mutford Lock for many years and only
in small boats previously so was very impressed with the handling of the MTB
through the confined space. It was all
hands on deck with fenders until the water levels adjusted and we were able to
make our way out on to Oulton Broad, to the cheers of the boat owners in the
marina!

The idea of the trip was for MTB102 to lead a procession of
private and hire boats down to Beccles where spaces had been booked in the
marina, for a weekend of fun and frolics!
As we went across Oulton Broad, the fleet formed behind us, many of the
boats decked out with flags and bunting.
There were cameras clicking and flashes flashing everywhere and we felt
extremely privileged to be on board this historic vessel.

It was quickly clear that most of the small boats in the
procession were struggling to keep up with the powerful MTB so one of the
engines was shut down which reduced the speed thus allowing the procession to
keep together. There was one intrepid
sailor who managed to keep up with the leaders, under sail, for about a third
of the journey which was very impressive.
I think when it came to tacking the skipper thought better of it and
resorted to the engine!

The fleet!

The trip took almost three hours and we were cheered and
photographed all along the route.

I'll give you 10 seconds to drop that camera!

The MTB had taken part in the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations
on the Thames so had quite a high profile and as she isn’t seen too often on
the Broads these days, it was a momentous
occasion. One I certainly enjoyed
tremendously and the memories will stay with me for a long time.

Thursday, 16 August 2012

In the old days I can recall my mother being anxious when she knew that I was going on a long road trip and insisting that I call her as soon as I arrived, which wasn't always easy in the days before mobile phones and sometimes entailed a trek to a phone box and juggling with many coins, for a two minute call of reassurance.

This is probably why, when my children are travelling anywhere I always ask them to let me know when they arrive. However, this is no longer necessary as in these days of super technology, I get updates via social networking sites every five minutes or so. I know exactly where they are at any given time, what delays they are experiencing at airports, on motorways or when they stop for refreshments.

This is great - the only problem being that they sometimes forget to let everyone know that they have actually arrived, so I am left suspended - are they really still at the services stop on the M5, or still waiting for their luggage at Lanzarote airport?

They do remember eventually and I breath a sigh of relief and relax, until the return journey!

The photo (C 1952) has no relevance to my comments above but I guess that my parents had to reassure my grandparents that we had arrived safely at our holiday destination.